I enjoy working in public spaces. Interacting with the public, outside museums or galleries, is very exciting and a source of pleasure. There is a point when you need to leave the studio behind and interact with the passers-by who do not always pay attention to the sculpture or the installation. Sometimes something happens, sometimes nothing, and that is precisely the point. It is also a matter of confrontations with so many other constraints, such as financial supports, the genius of the place, residents’ habits, safety regulations… All those constraints are also big incentives to reshuffle the cards.
When I do outdoors works, I often use glass, it is a noble and time-enduring material. I can now handle ceramic inks that have been used for centuries on stained-glassed windows in cathedrals and that is a real asset to preserve public artworks in a good condition. On the other, and it is even more important than its longevity, glass fascinates and inspires me so much that I love working with it. A work made of glass has the capacity to play with light and colour effects, depending on weather changes. I have installed a glass piece, Irrational Geometrics, in collaboration with the architect Gil Percal in Perth Australia through which you can admire the reflections of the entire contemporary city parts but also the on-going traffics of passers-by, bikers and car drivers. All these reflections work in fact like a prism that echoes the Aborigines’ songlines. Nothing beats glass when it comes to contextualize a work of art.